''Population Zero'' is a 2016
found footage crime thriller film directed by Adam Levins that premiered at the
Newport Beach International Film Festival
The Newport Beach Film Festival (NBFF) is an annual film festival in Newport Beach, California, typically held in late April. In 2022, it was announced that the festival had permanently changed its date to be held in October, as the festival bega ...
on April 26, 2016.
The filmmakers were inspired to make the film after learning of the existence of
a small portion of
Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States located in the northwest corner of Wyoming, with small portions extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U ...
that, under the
Sixth Amendment's
Vicinage Clause, could enable one to commit a crime without having a jury be able to try them, thus creating "the
perfect crime
A perfect crime is a crime that is undetected, unattributed to an identifiable perpetrator, or otherwise unsolved or unsolvable. The term is used colloquially in law and fiction (especially crime fiction) for both crimes committed as crimes foremo ...
".
This idea was first written about in a ''
Georgetown Law Journal
''The Georgetown Law Journal'' is a student-edited scholarly journal published at Georgetown University Law Center. It is the flagship law review of the Georgetown University Law Center.
Overview
The ''Georgetown Law Journal'' is headquartered ...
'' article, "The Perfect Crime," by
Michigan State University
Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State o ...
law professor
Brian C. Kalt,
and first dramatized in the 2007 novel "Free Fire" by
C. J. Box, from which ''Population Zero'' borrows heavily.
Synopsis
The film is a "
mockumentary
A mockumentary (a portmanteau of ''mock'' and ''documentary'') is a type of film or television show depicting fictional events, but presented as a Documentary film, documentary. Mockumentaries are often used to analyze or comment on current event ...
" examining the history of Dwayne Nelson, a suspected murderer. In 2009, Nelson confessed to shooting three men to death in Yellowstone National Park and despite his confession being accurately detailed, he was not convicted of the crimes because the crime occurred in an uninhabited area and as such, there is no chance of finding a jury to hear the trial. Years later
Julian T. Pinder examines the crimes and the legal loophole that allowed Nelson to walk free. As the film progresses Pinder begins to receive strange and frightening items, evidence of Nelson's crime.
Reception
In its opening week in Canada, the film grossed
Can$
The Canadian dollar (currency symbol, symbol: $; ISO 4217, code: CAD; ) is the currency of Canada. It is abbreviated with the dollar sign $. There is no standard disambiguating form, but the abbreviations Can$, CA$ and C$ are frequently used f ...
3,841 from 15 theatres.
''
The Hollywood Reporter
''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...
'' said that although the film was uneven in places it was also "creatively eerie". Shock Till You Drop praised the movie, commenting that "Knowing that ''POPULATION ZERO'' is a hypothetical scenario played out is immaterial. The question of whether the film is real or not is not the point. The point is that the federal government recognizes that there is a “Zone of Death” in one of its National Parks, making this film far more unsettling and disturbing than anything to spring from one’s imagination."
On
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
, the film holds an approval rating of 78% based on 9 reviews, with an average rating of 5.90/10.
See also
*
Zone of Death (Yellowstone)
The Zone of Death is the area in the Idaho section of Yellowstone National Park in which, as a result of the Vicinage Clause in the Constitution of the United States, a person may be able to theoretically avoid conviction for any major crime ...
*
''For the People'' season 2 episode 2 "This Is America" uses a similar concept, but with a character named Arthur Covington murdering his wife in the park
References
External links
*
* {{rotten-tomatoes, population_zero
2016 horror films
2016 films
Films set in 2009
2016 crime thriller films
American horror thriller films
Canadian horror thriller films
Found footage films
English-language Canadian films
2010s English-language films
2010s American films
2010s Canadian films
Films set in the Yellowstone National Park
English-language horror thriller films
English-language crime thriller films